Ailleurs

First do it, then do it right, then do it better. […] You’ll learn more from one week of real feedback than a month of theoretical debate.

— Addy Osmani, 21 Lessons From 14 Years at Google

En visitant le site GOV.UK, je me suis encore perdu dans leurs ressources internes. C’est toujours intéressant ce qui y est partagé, par exemple sur comment réaliser un contenu efficace, accessible, et les bonnes pratiques.

Voici quelques extraits que je trouve pertinents, et qui pourraient s’appliquer de façon générique à beaucoup de sites — pas nécessairement gouvernementaux, il suffit de remplacer « gouvernement » par le nom du site ou de l’entreprise.

À quoi sert le site GOV.UK :

GOV.UK is the official source of government information. It is impartial so that people can trust the content they find. GOV.UK includes services, information and guidance that only government can provide. It’s designed so that users do not need to understand the complex structures of government in order to complete their task. Its content and design is user-centred so that interacting with government is accessible to everybody.

Content and services are continually improved to meet user needs.

— GOV.UK proposition

Leurs principes de conception :

1. Start with user needs
2. Do less
3. Design with data
4. Do the hard work to make it simple
5. Iterate. Then iterate again
6. This is for everyone
7. Understand context
8. Build digital services, not websites
9. Be consistent, not uniform
10. Make things open: it makes things better
11. Minimise environmental impact

— Government Design Principles

Ce que lisent vraiment les Internautes :

When you use a longer word (8 or 9 letters), users are more likely to skip shorter words (3, 4 or 5 letters) that follow it. So if you use longer, more complicated words, readers will skip more. Keep it simple.

For example:
The recently implemented categorical standardisation procedure on waste oil should not be applied before 1 January 2015.

The ‘not’ is far more obvious in this:
Do not use the new waste oil standards before 1 January 2015.

— Writing for GOV.UK

There is no magic wand. Problematic tech doesn’t work itself out over time. If anything, the systemic issues become further entrenched, and eventually, every just accepts them as a price of doing business.

Do not accept “we’ll figure that out later” as a response to pointing out meaningful problems. It’s a con. Solve the problems or abandon the project.

— Chris Ferdinandi, The magic developer wand…

Article découvert en lisant David Larlet.

Derrière toute décision d’un algorithme ou d’un programme, il y a un humain qui a décidé et écrit les instructions.

A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.

— IBM training, Simon Willison’s Weblog

Une collègue disait souvent que « le mieux est l’ennemi du bien », cela marche aussi pour la perfection.

I used none of those technologies on my actual website, though I have used each of them to build production software. While I think these technologies are great, they are definitely overkill.

— Anton Medvedev, Perfect is the enemy of good

Do not try to be the smartest in the room; try to be the kindest.

— Jorge Galindo, Do not try to be the smartest in the room; try to be the kindest.

Le cerveau serait programmé pour la survie et non pour la productivité, ce qui expliquerait les comportements comme la procrastination, la perte de concentration ou la démotivation.

— L’époque (Le Monde), « La vie en entreprise est-elle neuroépuisante ? »